Recently, Wes Yahola, producer and co-host of the popular “Drake in the Morning Show” on radio station 98.1 The Max, agreed to an interview regarding his experiences working for the program. The following are excerpts from that interview.

Q: How long have you been in the radio/communications business? How long with 98.1?
A: I’ve been working professional radio for twenty-six years, but began in High School, so add another five to that for radio overall. I started with 98.1 in August of 2007.

Q: What was your first job in the business? Intern? Sales/marketing? Co-host?
A: I started professionally as a weekend part-timer after pestering the APD (Drake) of the local rock station (Rock 103) just enough so he remembered my name, interests, and ability as he visited my workplace (a newsstand).

Q: What’s it like working not just in radio, but in radio in Memphis, the birthplace of rock’n’roll and home of the blues?
A: It’s very natural. I grew up here so everything about the significance to this city came in bits and pieces to me over time.

Q: In your field, commentary and opinion are a large part of your job. Are you ever concerned with making listeners angry or offending anyone? Do you have any stories of people ever getting mad and calling in to give you their two cents?
A: I’m not worried about how people will react to an opinion I hold, but I make a strong effort to bring out all the pertinent facts about a story, even if that includes things I don’t necessarily agree with. Some people will sometimes confuse delivering facts as having an opinion. When the show had the phones open we often got callers complaining about something Drake or Zeke said. As much as I sometimes would have enjoyed arguing with them, there was never enough time to do that and work on a morning show at the same time.

Q: In a market like Memphis, we have a pretty broad spectrum of people. How do you decide on your daily material and what will resonate with audiences?
A: Drake drives the show by design, so he decides the topics we cover most of the time. If Danni or I want to bring something in particular up, we wait for an opportune moment. We’re getting better at picking up on those.

Q: On your show, you feature a lot of notable local names such as Shea Flinn, Bruce VanWyngarden, and Rev. Kenneth Whalum Jr. How do you go about compiling such a strong cast of regular guests? Is it a matter of what listeners want, or in some cases even need to hear, as far as the news is concerned?
A: We spent years and years building up the repertoire of guests that come onto the show. The Drake and Zeke show had a reputation, fairly or not, of being a typical radio morning show. It was a deliberate choice to work to overcome that presumption in people’s minds. As time went on, we were able to grow the show in scope and gravity, in part by convincing guests we weren’t a “wacky morning zoo” and then proving it to them.

Q: Do you have relationships with these people outside of your program?
A: Only slightly. We live in different parts of the area and we, especially me, have different interests from each other outside the realm of music and radio.

Q: Speaking of regular guests, attorney William Jones from the Jones Law Firm seems to have a pretty successful weekly segment with “Ask Lawyer Bill.” There never seems to be a shortage of people calling in with legal troubles, and I assume the phone continues to ring long after you stop accepting calls. Do all of you often times end that segment by scratching your heads and thinking, “How do people get themselves into these things?” Have there ever been any calls that you decided not to play on the air, whether it be due to the pending legal status of the issue or anything else?
A: We run Bill for about an hour, give or take, and do that so people don’t grow tired of it. I’m the one setting up the calls and really the only ones I won’t put through are questions similar to ones we’ve already heard that day, cases where the person has a lawyer already, and cases not in Tennessee or Mississippi (the only states where Bill is licensed). The ultra-common questions -getting records expunged, for example – I’ll put through every third or fourth time. Also, Bill is very good at distancing himself from stepping over the line once he’s talking with the caller.

Q: Name one thing that you absolutely hate about your job.
A: That it took twenty six years in the business and the death of Zeke to actually begin earning “grown-up money.” Since the 1996 Telecommunications Act that allowed for massive corporations to own more and more stations, fewer and fewer corporations and companies do. That’s led to more and more automation and expanded job duties, and fewer and fewer jobs. With fewer jobs available, and so many interested in getting them, pay has remained low.

Q: A lot of radio stations are tending to go toward nationally syndicated broadcasts. Is there anything that makes you apprehensive about the future of radio, particularly locally run radio programs?
A: The thing that makes me the most apprehensive about radio’s future are the distant corporate middle and upper managers who have no idea about the local market and think what works in, Indianapolis (for example), will work as well in any other market.

Q: There’s always a lot going on in this city. We have the Grizzlies, and Tigers, and Redbirds; we’re a stopping point for a lot of big artists on tour including Foo Fighters and Steve Miller, even Paul McCartney stopped by in 2013. Not that you get a lot of perks necessarily, but of the events/promotions with which you’ve been affiliated, what events have you enjoyed the most while working for 98.1?
A: Seeing the Foo Fighters from a box in the Pyramid, and having a place to retreat to during Musicfest. I enjoy concerts and festivals, but I enjoy them more if I’m not always pressed in a crowd.

Q: If you could have any exotic animal as a pet what would it be? A monkey? Elephant? Maybe a giraffe?
A: I have to say you’ve stumped me on this one.